South Omaha residents file complaints against concrete plant

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT)-- Residents near 25th and Hickory receive a daily unwanted wake up from a neighboring concrete plant, and they’ve had enough.

Terry Szczepanowski says she wakes up five days a week at about 4 a.m. to the concrete supply plant firing up.

“On a cool night when you are trying to sleep with the windows open and they fire that thing up at four o’clock or 4:15, it’s very annoying,” said Szczepanowski.

The plant said this is the first they are hearing of complaints and that the site is zoned heavy industrial, and the season demands early starts.

“You can’t go back to sleep because the thing is ringing in your ears. I’m shutting windows, turning on fans, and I can still hear it,” said Larry Mach, another neighbor.

The concrete supply manager adds that he doesn’t want the plant to be a nuisance and will talk to the city.

Omaha’s chief housing inspector tells 6 news that industrial noise is allowed at certain levels between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. The city has received a formal complaint so inspectors will measure sound levels from the concrete plant and in the neighborhood during working hours. Then they’ll take readings if the plant fires up about 4 a.m. That will determine if there’s industrial noise outside the time window permitted by the city.

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